Remember when APAN President Nasser Mashni appeared on ABC Australia’s Q&A and utterly disgraced himself (again)? I don’t think Mashni was too happy how it all developed, because after the show, he retweeted the below:
And many fellow Israel-haters expressed similar sentiments, actually lodging a complaint with the ABC, who investigated.
I am happy to report the investigation ended in a result haters like Mashni are probably already used to: failure.
An investigation by the ABC’s ombudsman has cleared the public broadcaster’s Q&A program of bias, concluding the November 13 show – the target of almost 900 complaints – presented “highly polarising views” in a fair and balanced way.
—
The ABC’s ombudsman, Fiona Cameron, said the broadcaster had received 882 complaints about the show, which featured Labor MP Tim Watts, former Liberal MP Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador in Israel, and UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. The panel included Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council chairman Mark Leibler and Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni.
Ms Cameron noted that almost all the complaints – raising concerns of bias – received by the ABC used identical wording. Complaints included that it had two Jewish spokespeople, gave disproportionate time to Jewish speakers, that Karvelas frequently interrupted Mr Mashni, and that she asked Mr Mashni to condemn Hamas killing Israelis while not asking Mr Leibler to condemn Israel killing Palestinian civilians.
“Mr Mashni spoke considerably more than other panellists, which in part explains why he was interrupted more,” Ms Cameron wrote. She also noted that there was only one Jewish panellist – Mr Leibler. Mr Sharma stated on the show that he was not Jewish.
“The program included highly polarised views which were appropriately challenged by the host and critically discussed by other panellists, including views that were likely offensive and hurtful to some viewers,” she concluded. “We consider that the program impartially presented these views and did not favour any perspective.”
Note how almost all the complaints used identical wording, indicating the complainants were either bots or real people instructed by Mashni or someone else. Also, the fact they complained about there being two Jewish panelists is a telling admission that they regard Jews as Zionists – despite their insistence Judaism and Zionism should not be conflated. (Conflation achievement unlocked after suggesting the non-Jewish David Sharma – a friend of Israel – was Jewish).
Meanwhile, here’s to many more failures from these haters!
